A Different World
by SharpieGirl
Summary: Theres a new band of mutants. The Band will eventually run into Fang. What will they learn from this "Fang"? He keeps talking about the end of the world and some girl named Max. Can the Band help Fang, or will they clash with this new world? Please R&R.


**Thanks so much to all of my submissions. Lots of awesome characters. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride. **

**Cameron's (Sky's) POV**

"Can we _move_ already?" an irritated Mango screeched as she shook out her mane of orange, shoulder length hair and drained it of salty water. Her British accent really came out heavy when she was angry.

She was also sopping wet. My best guess is that was why she was mad.

Our good pal Jenna had gotten the bright idea to splash her fellow mutant freak, Mango, with a bucket of seawater that she dragged up from the ocean. Great idea. Not.

Mango _hates _water.

"Seriously," Mango said, slightly more calm but still irritated, "Let's just pack up and leave this dump."

Storm snorted in disproval. Luciano and Lleia were shaking their heads like Mango had gone crazy.

If the "dump" she was speaking of happened to be the magical paradise we were living in filled with lush redwood woods to explore and camp in, gorgeous views of the glittering Pacific Ocean every day, abundant wildlife, cute little squirrels, lush green nature, perfect crystal-white sandy beaches, and awesome weather then I was like, _No freakin' way are we moving again. Nope. Nada. No. _

Jenna cackled. "Aww, c'mon, Mang, give it a rest. You are _way_ too uptight about this water thing. You've got, like, water phobia or something. We've moved, like, five times in the past three months. And besides, Skywould never leave this place unless we had too. He loves the ocean. He's in _love_ with this place. He'd hang you by your toes and turn us all into bird-kabobs before leaving. And _I'm_ not leaving if _he_ isn't."

Great kid, Jenna. She really was a great kid.

Being the fabulous, good-natured Mango that she was, Mango just grinned and said, "Of course. I was just mad. Wasn't thinking. But I _do_ think we should do something about _you."_

All seven of us were laying around on a limestone cliff overlooking our beautiful Pacific Ocean. We all referred to it as the Cliff. We had decided to take the day off from our usual schedule of doing nothing around headquarters, and decided to do nothing on the Cliff instead. Sitting around like ducks, we had talked, laughed and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves for the entire afternoon. Even cold and distant Violet had joined in on the fun and enjoyed herself.

I had been dozing on and off on the sun-warmed stone for the past hour. I had woken up to the sound of Mango being abducted by Jenna and then having salt water thrown on her. Unbeknownst to the rest of the Band, I was awake. So I decided to feign sleep and watch the whole scene through narrowed eyes. I didn't know where that would get me exactly, but I was rewarded when Jenna started saying those nice things. I'm sure she wouldn't have done it if she knew I was awake. She was a sweet kid, Jenna was.

Then, I saw Mango dart forward and catch Jenna on the shoulder. The impact wasn't enough to hurt Jenna, just send her stumbling back a few steps.

Unfortunately for Jenna, she was just a few inches away from the cliff's edge.

For one long second, Jenna teetered on the edge of the limestone wall, then she tumbled back, giving a little shriek of surprise.

Storm and Luciano started cracking up. Lleia rolled her eyes and returned to reading the worn paperback book she had brought with her.

I couldn't help but letting a small chuckle escape my lips. I caught Violet giving me a cold, but slightly amused look, as if she was saying, _Ha. I caught you pretending to sleep. How pathetic are you? _

While the other members of the Band weren't looking I pressed my finger to my lips showing her to be quiet.

She sighed, but didn't say anything. I took that as a yes.

I couldn't see Jenna, but I assumed she had landed in the water due to the faint _splash_ that echoed up to where we all sat.

Mango was mortified.

"I am _so _sorry, Jenna," she called over the edge down to the churning sea. "I didn't mean for you to fall off the Cliff. I am so _sorry."_

A minute later, a drenched Jenna flew up and landed clumsily a few yards away from the Cliff's edge. She was breathing heavily. She looked mad too.

"Now I understand that maybe I shouldn't have dumped the water on you, but that was no reason to _throw me off a cliff._ I mean, c'mon. Have a little spirit. Let a girl have some fun," a grumpy Jenna spat. She sat down and started wringing salt water from her clothes.

Mango still looked slightly guilty, but amused all of the same, and of course relieved that Jenna hadn't decided to throw her off the cliff as well.

"Why did you land in the water, Jenna?" Storm inquired after he was done laughing and wiping the tears from his eyes. "You _have_ wings, you know. You could have just... flown away."

Jenna looked uncomfortable and shifted from foot to foot. "Umm... I kinda forgot about my wings on the way down. I was so shocked that Mango pushed me, 'cause she doesn't usually do that, and I just sortta... forgot to unfurl them. "

I sat bolt upright.

"You forgot you had _wings!" _I snarled in a deep voice.

Everyone looked shocked. Even Violet.

I _never _snap. At anyone. Not _ever_. Especially not at someone in the Band.

"Well, it looks like _someone _wasawake," Lleia commented in a sarcastic tone.

I was too furious to pay attention to Lleia's attitude at the moment.

"Listen to me carefully, Jennifer Ramden. We cannot just _forget_ that we have wings. We have to always be aware. Aware of our skills. Aware of our power. Aware of what completes us. Aware of what has made our lives _hell_ from the moment we were _borne_!"

I was really mad now. But not at Jenna. Never at Jenna. I was remembering the years and years that I had suffered at the powerful and manipulating hands of the Itex corporation.

I wasn't mad at _Jenna_, I was mad at what she said. What she represented.

What I _wanted_.

Just for a second. For a split _second,_ Jennifer Ramden was able to forget who she was. She was able to forget that she had wings. _Wings_. That she had spent years and years and _years_ under sever torture and harsh medical experiments. It was only for a second that she forgot it all, but it must have been absolute bliss.

I would love to forget who I was. Not forever, because there are people in my life who need me to be sane. But just for a little bit. A few minutes. A few minutes of a normal life. With no wings. And no white coats. And no suffering.

Honestly, is that too much to ask. Am I being selfish here?

I could never ever _ever_ forget that I had wings on my back. Sure, they came with some cool perks. But they also represented the very corporation that I hated more than anything else in the whole world.

Jenna has always been the happy one in our Band. The positive one. Always cracking jokes and playing little pranks on the other members. I swear that girl could make a rock laugh if she wanted to. No joke.

I'm not saying that Jenna didn't suffer from Itex. We all did. But Jenna has this way of putting the past behind her. Of never looking back and thinking _What if?_

Jenna was happy with her life, happy to have air in her lungs, and she just took her problems on step at a time. She was grateful for what she had. She's always said it could be worse. She's right. It could be.

But I can't just forget the past. I can't just forget what Itex did.

They did murder my girlfriend after all. But that's a different, much more painful story.

I had loved Jenna since the moment I found her cornered in an ally way with a injured leg, broken wing, bruises all over, and cornered by a dozen vicious, ugly erasers.

A lot of the time, she was my favorite Band member. My favorite sister.

But from the moment I met her, I was very jealous of the fact that she seemed to live a semi normal life. With happiness. And I was still living through my pain every second of every day.

This all came screaming back to me as I stood snarling over Jenna.

Maybe I was overreacting. Just a little bit.

Okay fine. I was totally overreacting. A lot. I didn't realize it until a heavy, solid mass slammed into my chest, knocking the wind out of me.

Violet had barreled into me at full speed. We both slammed back onto the rough limestone. Hard.

Breathing heavily, her blond hair a windswept tangled mass, she leaned close to my face and growled, "Cool it, Sky. Breathe. Pull yourself together."

Slowly, I regained my normal leaderly composure.

I gently pushed Violet off of my chest. She looked ready to knock me back over any second. That's the thing about Vi, she's a strong gal. Maybe too strong. Always knows what needs to get done. She was there to stop me if thing got out of control again. Which I was grateful for. But to be honest, I think she was just looking for an excuse to punch my guts out. She's weird like that. Cold. Distant. She loves us all, but she loves to beat us up just as much. Funny Violet.

I sat up slowly, and looked around at the rest of the Band.

They were all starting at me. Just _staring._

I didn't really blame them.

I got up and walked over to Jenna. She looked the most shaken. Jenna was the youngest. She had just turned thirteen. But she was strong. She was tough. She eyed me through wary eyes as I approached, looking ready to run for it the first hint that I was going to attack her.

Guilt swelled up in my chest. I would never ever attack our Jennifer.

Giving her a long look, I took a shaky breath. "I'm sorry. Jenna. I can't tell you how sorry I am. Sorry for everything. I'm sorry to all of you."

Here's something you should know. The whole Band is like giant pack of really annoying, yet really close brothers and sisters. We didn't exactly wake up every morning screaming to each other "_I love you_." But we did care. We did love each other. We never said anything like that, but we all knew it.

This was pretty much the deepest, most loving statement I have ever said to the rest of the Band.

Aren't we all just a warm and fuzzy bunch?

But all of the sudden, Jenna was there, hugging me. The Mango came over. Then Lleia. Luciano. Storm. Even Violet.

And there we were, all squished together in some big, mutant freak hug.

And it wasn't that bad. It was kind of nice.

It was actually really great.

**Violet's POV **

Let me just say for the record that I just want to kill Sky and get it over with.

It would really help my stress levels if I didn't have to worry about that idiot all the time.

He totally freaked me out this afternoon. I thought he would lose it. Right then and there.

I wouldn't have been surprised. I've actually been expecting something like this to happen for a while now. Ever since Claire got dragged away by the Erasers.

But that's a long story. I'm sure we'll have another opportunity to tell it in the future.

But ever since Claire was dragged off three months ago, I've been waiting for Sky to snap. You can't lose the love of your life, and act like nothing was wrong. It just didn't work that way.

Sky's a great leader. I have to admit that. I may be a good second in command, but no one can pull a group together like he can.

But even war generals have feelings.

Sky hasn't acted strange or abnormal or crazy or anything like that since Claire was kidnapped. He kind of went into this state of numb shock for about 24 hours after it happened. Then he was really sad and depressed for about another 24 hours. Then he was pissed at the whole friggin' world for another day. That was it.

Of course he became much more quiet after all of that. Slightly depressed. Didn't smile much anymore. Rarely laughed. This afternoon was the happiest I've seen him in a long time.

Until he snapped. Snapped at Jenna.

After our rare moment of public Band affection - believe me, that does _not_ happen very often - we all cleaned up and flew back up to headquarters.

I was sitting on the large L-shaped couch in our "conference room" (which was just a fancy word for living room) trying to read my way through some boring Shakespeare literature that I had promised Lleia I would look at. But my heart just wasn't into the old text.

My thoughts kept drifting back to Sky.

I was guessing that he had closed off most of his emotions since Claire got dragged off. But they were still there. Somewhere in him. Bottled up inside. Just waiting to get out.

And when they did come, it would cause an emotional earthquake that would vibrate throughout the rest of the Band, destroying the family-like bonds that connected us.

It wasn't healthy for Sky to be doing this. And I was worried. Yes. Me. Worried. I admit that I'm not a stone cold person. I have the capability to care.

My ponderings on Sky's sanity were interrupted when Storm called my name, and motioned for me to come to where he was sitting at a large desk at the opposite end of the room. On it we kept all out our technology gear. Computers, phones, music players, bombs, and other stuff like that.

Storm had his laptop open. His eyes where starting at the screen in a dazed fix, almost popping out of their sockets.

Either something really good happened. Or something really bad.

I was across that room and standing next to Storm before you could say _mutant-freak._

"What?"

Storm unglued his eyes from the screen. Slowly he turned to look at me. His silver colored eyes pierced mine as he said ,"You have _got_ to check this out." A slow, evil grin was spreading across his face.

I knew that grin only too well.

Feeling slightly cautions now, I turned the laptop so the monitor was facing me.

Hmm. It looked like a blog. A random kid's blog.

I still wasn't sure where this was going. But deciding to play along with Storm's little game, I read a few of the posts. I silently wondered if Storm was starting to have sanity issues too.

But after reading a little more, my jaw dropped.

I couldn't believe it.

"Told you this was worth seeing," Storm muttered.

It was a blog. But it wasn't just any blog.

It was a blog about some fifteen-year-old guy named Fang.

And according to Fang, he had wings.

"Sky!" I called out. "Luciano, Lleia, Mango, Jenna! Get out here. There's something you _might _wannasee."

**So... what did you think. Good or bad? Helpful hints or suggestions? Please review. They make my day. Review? Please?**


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